[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 76 (Wednesday, June 14, 2006)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1145]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        NEW YORK NEEDS THE MONEY

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. CHARLES B. RANGEL

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, June 14, 2006

  Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Speaker, with Secretary Michael Chertoff's decision 
to cut Federal anti-terror funding for both New York and Washington, 
DC, I would like to introduce an editorial printed in the Daily News on 
June 7, 2006, that encourages the executive branch to put pressure on 
the Department of Homeland Security to rectify this decision. The 
editorial, titled Get N.Y. the money, Mr. President, discusses the 
extremely negative reception this decision has received.
  Both former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani and former chairman of 
the 9/11 commission, Tom Kean, two of the most knowledgeable men on 
protecting our country from terrorism, claim that New York, as the 
premier target of terrorist attacks, needs to implement several anti-
terror programs in order to completely protect itself. The intended 
programs included an effort to prepare the fire department to adeptly 
handle multiple attacks at once, to allocate funding to the NYPD 
counterterrorism bureau which interprets threats to the city, and to 
create systems that can detect radiation in the water and air.
  In deciding how to best allocate homeland security funds, Secretary 
Chertoff used a complicated scoring system that resulted in the funding 
of information dissemination and consequentially the rejection of funds 
required for protecting New York. This editorial endorses an effort to 
demonstrate the importance of protecting both New York and Washington, 
DC. The Daily News editors argue correctly that President Bush is the 
only person with the authority to do this.
  The House Homeland Security Committee's chairman, Peter King, joined 
by the entire New York delegation in the House and Senate has made 
spirited efforts to reverse the decision to reduce the allocation to 
New York. More money is needed for New York, and I certainly hope that 
the Department of Homeland Security recognizes this as soon as 
possible.
  Therefore I submit for the Record an editorial from the June 7, 2006, 
issue of the Daily News for our consideration.

                   Get N.Y. the Money, Mr. President

       No less an authority than Rudy Giuliani has rendered the 
     ultimate verdict on the Department of Homeland Security's 
     decision to slash New York City's federal anti-terror 
     funding. Plainly and simply, Giuliani sees incompetence.
       Similarly, Tom Kean, former chairman of the 9/11 
     commission, says the department turned thumbs down on paying 
     for exemplary programs that ``should be a model for the 
     nation.'' Kean also questioned the wisdom of allowing 
     Homeland Security to base its dollar allocations on the work 
     of anonymous panels operating in secret.
       When it comes to emergency preparedness, Giuliani and Kean 
     are two of the smartest guys around. Having studied the war 
     on terror up close, they are experts in the extraordinarily 
     broad range of defenses that a city like New York, the 
     world's No. 1 terror target, must mount if we are to have a 
     chance at fending off disaster.
       New Yorkers aren't as versed in the best ways to link 
     emergency communications, or how to pick up radioactivity, or 
     what to make of intelligence reports flowing from abroad--but 
     New Yorkers do have finely tuned B.S. detectors. And so do 
     all the late-night comics who are ridiculing Secretary 
     Michael Chertoff's incompetence. Which starts with the rules 
     his bureaucrats established for selecting anti-terror 
     programs that were worthy of funding.
       The regs favored buying things over paying for manpower and 
     training, no matter how vital the manpower or training was. 
     So, Chertoff smiles at paying for armored vests for cops, but 
     he frowns at picking up the salaries of the officers who 
     patrol in them. He's happy to buy haz-mat suits for 
     firefighters, but he doesn't want to train firefighters to 
     wear them.
       The shortsighted, wrongheaded outrageousness of Chertoff's 
     thinking screams forth when you run down just some of the 
     ways the city had hoped to spend U.S. anti-terror money. 
     There were plans to:
       Prepare the Fire Department to face multiple chemical, 
     biological or nuclear attacks.
       Provide continuing emergency response training to 
     firefighters and fire officers.
       Devote funding to the NYPD counterterrorism bureau, which 
     analyzes threats, and Operation Atlas, which puts as many as 
     1,000 anti-terror cops on the street daily.
       Boost security for the Brooklyn, Manhattan, Williamsburg 
     and Queensboro bridges.
       Create a lower Manhattan security zone, complete with 
     surveillance cameras.
       Develop a broadband wireless communication system for 
     public safety agencies across the metropolitan area.
       Set up systems to detect radiation and biohazards in the 
     air and water and gauge their movement in winds and currents.
       Draft an isolation and quarantine program to be used in an 
     epidemic outbreak.
       Buy a boat to enable the FDNY to respond to a chemical, 
     biological or radiation attack by water.
       Using a half-baked scoring system as complex as the Tax 
     Code, Chertoff's evaluators gave top marks to a program to 
     disseminate emergency readiness information to the public, 
     including pet owners, while flunking the NYPD 
     counterterrorism center. Nothing could better sum up how 
     disconnected from reality Homeland Security was.
       Yet Chertoff is holding fast in refusing to put federal 
     funding where it really belongs. That's in New York and 
     Washington, which also suffered a 40% cut in aid. He needs to 
     change his mind, or be made to change his mind, and all his 
     nutty rules must go. Only one person has the power to compel 
     such action: President Bush.
       Rep. Pete King, chair of the House Homeland Security 
     Committee, said yesterday that if Chertoff doesn't come up 
     with more money for New York, he'll take the matter to Bush. 
     That's good, but King shouldn't have to storm the Oval 
     Office. Bush, who has refrained from canning Chertoff, should 
     order him to rectify his incompetence posthaste.

                          ____________________